UPDATED BRACKET and CHAMPIONSHIP CENTER

SURPRISE, Ariz.—Academy of Art established a number of “first times” in winning the 2024 Pacific West Conference Women’s Tennis Championship on Saturday afternoon at the Surprise Tennis and Racquet Center.

The trophy that the Urban Knights posed with after the 4-0 win over Azusa Pacific will be the school's first women’s tennis hardware to go into the trophy case. The Urban Knights had been to the title match three times before, but had never won the whole thing.

Additionally, ART U is the first No. 5 seed to win the championship, with the journey beginning last Wednesday in the First Round play-in games. The Urban Knights won four times, defeating Colorado Mesa (4-0), Hawaii Pacific (4-2), #1 seed Point Loma (4-1) and the #2 seed Cougars.

Academy of Art has now earned the PacWest’s automatic qualifier into the NCAA tournament. Azusa Pacific will certainly join them, but the announcement won’t be made until May 6.

On a warm 95-degree day, ART U captured the doubles point in dramatic fashion on court two with a 7-6 (7-4) win by the team of Jessica Plazas and Estelle Najean. That duo was down 4-1 in the tiebreaker before scoring six straight points to set the tone for the rest of the day.

From there, the Urban Knights won the three matches that they needed to clinch. Amelija Supulneice won on the stadium court by beating the PacWest Player of the Year, Madison Kane, 7-5, 6-0.  Plazas won on court two, 6-4, 6-4 over Julia Jordan and the match was wrapped on court five when Viktoria Leth won, 6-6-3, 6-2.

Being the #5 seed didn’t even enter into the thought process for head coach Nicole Briceno.

“I told the girls that the number five is just a number,” she said after the match. “It doesn’t mean anything to us. We just took one match at a time.”

It was just the second loss of the season for the Cougars, who had won 19 matches in a row. They are now 20-2. Academy of Art improves to 14-5.

In other matches, which can effect NCAA rankings and postseason opportunities, Point Loma defeated Concordia in the third place match, Hawaii Pacific stopped Biola in the fifth place match and Hawaii Hilo upended Dominican in the seventh place match.

CHAMPIONSHIP
Academy of Art 4, Azusa Pacific 0    
Tournament MVP: Viktoria Leth, Academy of Art     
Tournament Sportsmanship Award: Audrey Rafols, Dominican     
                         
THIRD PLACE—POINT LOMA 4, CONCORDIA 1
The Sea Lions, who most certainly will be heading to the postseason, won the third place match over the Golden Eagles. Point Loma won two of the three doubles matches, and took a 2-0 lead on Anna Pallencade’s 6-4, 6-1 on court five. CUI got a point back on court one with Sophie Rachor’s win, but the Sea Lions moved ahead with Quin Brady’s victory on court four and Arianna Audelo’s hard fought win on court three over Tiffany Carrillo, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5). PLNU waits on the NCAA with a 17-4 record, and Concordia is 16-6.
                                                           
FIFTH PLACE--HAWAI`I PACIFIC 4, BIOLA 2                                                            
The Sharks muscled through on a hot afternoon (94 degrees) with a 4-2 win over the Eagles. Biola won the doubles point with wins on courts two and three to take a 1-0 team lead, but the Sharks quickly evened the match on court two behind Isabel Heupgen’s 6-2, 6-3 win. Colbeyshae Emery then put the Eagles back up a point with a impressive win on the top court over Abigail Wild, 6-1, 6-2. Leonie Mueller tied it for HPU with a three-set win on court five over Alex Mann, 6-1, 0-6, 6-1, and the Sharks then wrapped it up in the next ten minutes with victories from Sara Hejtmankova (6-4, 6-3) and Jayanne Palma (6-3, 6-4). HPU is now 11-12 and the Eagles are 17-10.
 
SEVENTH PLACE—HAWAII HILO 4, DOMINICAN 2                                                              
The Vulcans won the doubles point and survived a tight battle on the singles courts for a 4-2 season-ending win over Dominican. The Penguins won the top two singles courts via Audrey Rafols and Gina Dudley, but the Vulcans picked up two team points from Julia Barden on court five and Satoho Toriumi on court four, both in straight sets. Still, it would be another hour and 15 minutes before the Vulcans would clinch on three where Hikari Osaki won a marathon battle with Deepalakshmi Vanaraja, 1-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2). The Vulcans end their season at 11-9, while the Penguins wrap up at 12-9.